Norton Radstock College is making significant progress in raising standards and improving education provision, according to Ofsted inspectors.

The college has been praised for prioritising new strategies to improve teaching, learning and assessment across the curriculum.

Inspectors concluded that governors and senior leaders had worked hard to implement Ofsted's recommendations and set out clear targets and expectations for quality improvement. The Ofsted re-inspection report states: 'The college is making significant progress in raising standards.

'Changes to governance, leadership and management have enabled the college to move forward with much greater urgency and momentum'.

It comes as Norton Radstock College is proposing to merge with City of Bath College, to create a new college for the whole of the Bath and North East Somerset area. It will provide specialist vocational and educational training for more than 3,000 full-time students and 10,000 part-time students across the broadest range of subjects.

Norton Radstock College Acting Principal, Henry Logan, said: "This is an excellent result for us. It's the culmination of a lot of hard work and I am very pleased that we are getting this recognition from Ofsted."

The third re-inspection monitoring visit at Norton Radstock College was carried out by inspectors following its 'inadequate' Ofsted report in June last year.

Scrutiny visits took place in July and October last year and in February this year, for the monitoring team to make key judgements about the college's progress in securing improvement. Inspectors recognised that a broad range of new strategies were having a positive impact in raising standards and improving quality. These include: clear targets and expectations for improvement with regular and effective quality monitoring processes, identifying and implementing models of good practice and staff development and support systems.

City of Bath College Principal, Matt Atkinson, said the merged college would continue to focus on quality with a strong focus on improving the educational and employment outcomes. He said: "As we approach the merger, I am very pleased that Ofsted has recognised the significant improvements made at Norton Radstock College.

"The report highlights just how hard Henry Logan and his team have been working at improving the experience of students."

The merger, which was announced in December, will see the dissolution of the governing body of Norton Radstock College and all assets and liabilities being transferred to the City of Bath College. The college will focus on creating the skills to meet the demand of the local labour market and course provision at the Norton Radstock campus will not change from September.